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Carrera Digital Recognized?

05-16-2016, 12:00 PM

I wonder if hardware and software combo would work with Carrera Digital 1/32 or 1/24 racing where the cars are not lane dependant and can be in either of the two lanes at any time that my setup has. In other words every time the cars pass the start line they might be in a different lane the next time around.
I know you can customize the track piece I send you. But will the software recognize Carrera Digital? Thanks

Well I heard back from them and they said as long as you cross over the sensors in your original lane (that you start the race in) it should work but they will work on it.
That would make it interesting that you would have to make sure you are in your lane before sensors at the start gate when you are finishing a lap. But would at this point I guess only work for two cars.
But Viasue might be a good choice for Carrera Analog vs say Trackmate as Viasue will put the sensors in your Carrera track for you if you send them a straight to do it. Any ideas?

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Hi y'all just thought we would chime in :>)
IF a digital car passes over a sensors it will trigger a lap for that lanes sensor..SO for digital tracks of any brand...the driver would have to be sure his car passes over the sensor for the lane he started out in for the race,,say lane 1,2,3,4,upto 16 lanes with our system...which could be quite challenging and make a race even more interesting...

HOWEVER IF the wrong car passes the wrong sensor that sensor will trigger and register a lap and time for the wrong car, for the lane sensor that was crossed...this would be a bad thing right :>(

The frequencies used to digitally control cars or lane switches and so on would not work for a sensor that would be frequency dependent for a proper accounting of which car passed a frequency related sensor....as long as the lap triggering frequency is different from the control frequencies in use for car and lane switching control...The above is the gets tricky part.

It is also tricky to involve / provide cars with ID chips that trigger and ID sensor so when the car ID chip passes any ID sensors its lap and time can be correctly accounted for . The good news with a car ID chip & ID chip sensor built into the track lanes ,,,there would be no concern to pass over the lane sensor you started out in AND no concern about passing over the incorrect lane sensor as in use currently...which means our current sensors are smart to a lesser degree than what would be needed for a True digital / ID driven lap counter / timer system.......

Both VIASUE & RC would need quite a bit of invested time, money and R&D to put such a system together....which open up a entirely new horizon for an ID driven concept..which could be used for Remote control races, slot racing , even RC airplane races as long as the transmitters and receivers are within range.

SO it is doable ...but would it be affordable, reliable, free of internal and external ill effects and transmissions ...Only R&D and hands on trial and error with digital oem tracks...

By the way an ID system could not depend on the frequencies used by the oems..Why ??Because all our work would be for nothing and of no use IF the oem's changed its frequencies for their digital slot racing systems....:>(

This is why we would need our own ID chips sensors / receivers and car ID emitter chips / transmitter chips...which also means the car owner would need to apply / install an ID chip and register it with the race software and so on and so on...IT GETS DEEP, and LIKELY COSTLY QUICK BUT not out of our reach and or realm of possibilities.

Thanks for the great subject
The VIASUE Pit Crew
PS : Please check out our New Add-On Features at www.viasue.com
Looking for sources of wifi ID chip sets ans sensors...Got any Leads ??

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This is a prime example of why standards in the Digital slot car world are necessary. How and why would a third party develop anything based on other proprietary hardware.

However a set of standards developed for this industry would allow VIASUE and others to have a degree of confidence that what they were spending there time and effort on could not be subject to the whims and actions of another party where they could be left high and dry.

We have already seen that with SCX digital. Their failure hurts all who have invested in that system. Had standards been used then the orphaned SCX digital stuff still could be matched with the survivors equipment, and not been a total loss to those unfortunate consumers.

Hornby is in financial trouble now. So what is next. Could Scalextrics be sold off to someone who has a different vision of what slot car racing should be, hanging more consumers out to dry.

Carrera has also risen from the ashes of bankrupcy not all that long ago. The industry needs standards, and needs to work together for the benefit of all. That way if and when there are company failures the hardware can still be utilized in the systems that remain.

In this particular case standards on IR frequency and data packets would provide Viasue with the stability it needed to build a system that would work on all digital systems. The time and effort they put it has a larger appeal, and probably would make sense

For interested Carrera digital users you can download Bruce's shareware for free and it has all the timing features you need, and will time and count laps for all 6 cars on a two lane track regardless of what lane they are in. It uses the Hardware in the Carrera track and there is nothing that needs to be added.

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I noticed that Viasue had recently a auction for Carrera Analog slot car racing complete setup minus the track with the installed leds. I wonder how much more it would cost to have the leds put into a standard 13inch straight provided by a customer and shipped back ?

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If you send us your track sections we do not charge any extra to install the sensors into the track you provide...as well for the use of your track we provide 15 foot cables over the default of 10 foot cables...If you visit our domain www.viasue.com you can check out our add on features that we offer only from our domain....that is we only sell the base system and kits on ebay.

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For interested Carrera digital users you can download Bruce's shareware for free and it has all the timing features you need, and will time and count laps for all 6 cars on a two lane track regardless of what lane they are in. It uses the Hardware in the Carrera track and there is nothing that needs to be added.

Other than the interface that is. And it's available from Digital Racing Solutions.

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Could you not use a basic 'transponder' system, like they do in rc cars and real race cars?

Digital cars already transmit their identification. In this case, Viasue does not have a corresponding receiver.

I'm still not sure why this is needed, though. Without the control unit, the cars are not "digital" cars, they're just analog and will count laps on any analog lap counter. WITH the control unit, there's already a receiver with which laps may be counted and timed. Unless you're wanting the Viasue lap counting software to become Carrera Digital compatible, you'd still need the Carrera Digital hardware and PC interface cable.

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We have been running some Carrera D/124 cars at Cloverleaf in Michigan.Both the wood track and the Carrera track are analog,and we have to bypass the digital chip in order for laps to be counted.With the chip connected and in analog mode the laps are not counted.The wood track is positive polarity,and I'm pretty sure the Carrera track is too.
I am not sure what timing software is being used.I will find out and post it.
Randy

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We can place our system into any track type including digital however the cars must cross the sensors / lane they start the race in....this is problematic

HOWEVER those used for RC land /air or water racing /timing / counting etc need to be provided transponders for each car, plane boat etc etc a transponder with a specific ID....These are not cheep then add in the receiver hardware and a way to integrate all that into a viasue system just puts the cost out of a base price that would scare anyone away.

Then scale is an issue ho is to small for RC type transponder systems....

HOWEVER we are looking into wifi methods that would be within most users budgets even for digital users...that want to change lanes as much as they like...each car would need a wifi transmitter and our usb box and race software would do the rest

Viasue is taking note of the interaction of this thread and related posts...THANKS Y'ALL

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..... HOWEVER we are looking into wifi methods that would be within most users budgets even for digital users...that want to change lanes as much as they like...each car would need a wifi transmitter and our usb box and race software would do the rest.....

You might want to check out RealFX Racing as they have the wifi /or bluetooth transmitter in cars figured out quite nicely but they are slotless. It is obvious to many of us that Carrera Digital is here to stay so you might want to see what u could do with that as far as testing transmitting systems.
Good Luck!

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I wonder if hardware and software combo would work with Carrera Digital 1/32 or 1/24 racing where the cars are not lane dependant and can be in either of the two lanes at any time that my setup has. In other words every time the cars pass the start line they might be in a different lane the next time around.
I know you can customize the track piece I send you. But will the software recognize Carrera Digital? Thanks

So in other words you want an analogue lap counting system and software to count laps on a digital system?